This invention relates to fuel supply indicators for motor vehicle fuel tanks which include a fuel consumption detector to measure the fuel consumption of an internal combustion engine.
Conventional motor vehicle fuel tanks include a fuel level detector for a fuel supply indicator. The fuel level detector is a lever or dip tube sensor with a float that rises and falls with the fuel level. This reciprocating motion varies a resistance by way of a contact bridge or linkage and consequently varies a current in a circuit, and the current is measured by an instrument which is used to indicate fuel level or fuel supply. The scale of the instrument in the circuit is calibrated in fuel volume. However, one disadvantage of this arrangement is that the fuel supply indication depends also on the inclination of the vehicle, so that a faulty fuel supply indication may result if the vehicle is inclined. Also, with a multichamber fuel tank, a plurality of lever or dip tube sensors is required, with a corresponding increase in cost. Moreover, these sensors only provide indications with gaps of up to five liters.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,307,452 and 4,546,648 disclose arrangements for measuring the consumption of fuel by an internal combustion engine but those arrangements provide no indication of the fill level of a fuel tank.